Swinging on a Star" is an American pop standard with music composed by Jimmy Van Heusen and lyrics by Johnny Burke. It was sung by Bing Crosby in the 1944 film Going My Way, winning an Academy Award for Best Original Song that year and has been recorded by numerous artists since then.

Song writer Jimmy Van Heusen was at Crosby’s house one evening for dinner, and to discuss a song for the movie Going My Way. During the meal one of the children began complaining about how he didn’t want to go to school the next day. The singer turned to his son and said to him, “If you don’t go to school, you might grow up to be a mule. Do you wanna do that?”

Van Heusen thought this clever rebuke would make a good song for the movie. He pictured Crosby, who played a priest, talking to a group of children acting much the same way as his own child had acted that night. Van Heusen took the idea to his partner lyricist Johnny Burke, who approved. They wrote the song.

The first recording of "Swinging on a Star" took place in Los Angeles on February 7, 1944, released as Decca Records no. 18597. The Williams Brothers quartet, including Andy Williams, sang backup vocals to Crosby.   It was featured in the Little Lulu cartoon, Bout with a Trout.

Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation.

A multimedia star, from 1934 to 1954 Bing Crosby was a leader in record sales, radio ratings and motion picture grosses. His early career coincided with technical recording innovations; this allowed him to develop a laid-back, intimate singing style that influenced many of the popular male singers who followed him, including Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin. Yank magazine recognized Crosby as the person who had done the most for American G.I. morale during World War II and, during his peak years, around 1948, polls declared him the "most admired man alive," ahead of Jackie Robinson and Pope Pius XII. Also in 1948, the Music Digest estimated that Crosby recordings filled more than half of the 80,000 weekly hours allocated to recorded radio music

Don't Fence Me In is a popular American song with music by Cole Porter and lyrics by Robert Fletcher and Cole Porter.

Originally written in 1934 for Adios, Argentina, an unproduced 20th Century Fox film musical, "Don't Fence Me In" was based on text by a poet and engineer with the Department of Highways in Helena, Montana, Robert (Bob) Fletcher. Cole Porter, who had been asked to write a cowboy song for the 20th Century Fox musical, bought the poem from Fletcher for $250. Porter reworked Fletcher's poem, and when the song was first published, Porter was credited with sole authorship. Porter had wanted to give Fletcher co-authorship credit, but his publishers did not allow that. After the song became popular, however, Fletcher hired attorneys who negotiated his being given co-authorship credit in subsequent publications. Although it was one of the most popular songs of its time, Porter claimed it was his least favorite of his own compositions.

In 1934, Robert Fletcher sent Porter his song, titled “Don’t Fence Me In,” which he had written at film producer Lou Brock’s suggestion, with the film “Adios, Argentina” in mind; Porter bought the rights, with the agreement that he would use the title, could re-work the lyrics if he chose, and could write his own music.

Ten years later, in 1944, Warner Bros. resurrected "Don't Fence Me In" for Roy Rogers to sing in the movie, Hollywood Canteen. Many people heard the song for the first time when Kate Smith introduced it on her radio broadcast of October 8, 1944. "Don't Fence Me In" was also recorded by Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters in 1944. Crosby entered the studio on July 25, 1944, without having seen or heard the song. Within 30 minutes, he and The Andrews Sisters had made the recording, which later sold over a million copies and topped the Billboard charts for eight weeks in 1944-45.

Besame Mucho" is a Spanish-language song written in 1940 by Mexican songwriter Consuelo Velázquez.

According to Velázquez herself, she wrote this song even though she had never been kissed yet at the time, and kissing as she heard was considered a sin    She was inspired by the piano piece "Quejas, o la Maja y el Ruiseñor" from the 1911 suite Goyescas by Spanish composer Enrique Granados, which he later also included as Aria of the Nightingale in his 1916 opera of the same name.  

An English-language version of the song was written by Sunny Skylar. The lyrics are different from the direct English translation of the original, but retain the Spanish Bésame mucho.   Emilio Tuero was the first to record the song, but the Lucho Gatica version made the song famous. Pedro Infante sang the song in English in his 1951 movie A Toda Maquina. The Beatles covered the song numerous times, both on stage and in the studio, including during their audition for Decca Records, their first EMI recording session and the Get Back sessions. A performance from the Get Back sessions was included in the documentary film Let It Be, while one from the EMI audition appeared on the Anthology 1 compilation. The Beatles sang their rendition of the song with English lyrics that do not correspond to the original Spanish lyrics. The Coasters released a version of the song that featured King Curtis on the saxophone.

Jimmy Dorsey recorded a version that became a Billboard #1 Hit in 1944.